Cable break causes rail chaos

Thameslink services were forced to stop at St Albans

Thousands of commuters have experienced severe delays after overhead power cables came down on a main rail line into London.

The cables came down north of Luton between 0630 BST and 0700 BST on Friday, forcing Midland Mainline and Thameslink services to stop at St Albans.

Engineers are trying to fix the problem and find out what caused it.

Network Rail said it hoped services would be up and running in time for the evening rush hour but could not give any guarantees.

"We apologise for the severe delays passengers have experienced," a spokesman said.

"We will work round the clock to try to sort the problem out for them to go home this evening."

He also said passengers would automatically be entitled to compensation from their train operator.